Sunday, September 24, 2017

Sports
and politics are a terrible mix. It is usually awful when politics
creeps into any pastime that is not inherently political. Just ask
gamers how they like it now that gender issues in gaming make more
headlines than the latest, greatest cross-platform offering. Why
should geeks have all the fun? It is time for the jocks to get a
taste.

Let
us get one thing straight, because it has already come up in a
personal conversation over the issue. I am an adamant supporter of
the First Amendment. Sports stars can protest about anything they
want for as long as they want. As president, Donald Trump can
complain about the protests as he sees fit. But players should not
be free from the consequences of their actions even while they have
the freedom to engage in those actions.

The
main consequence is disrespecting fans. Fans go to games in order to
watch football, basketball...whatever. They do not want to be met
with political protests. It is especially unpleasant when the
protests are of as divisive a nature as an accusation of general
racism perpetuated by Americans. The accusation is why attendance
and television ratings are down. Who wants to watch a bunch of guys
getting paid at least $500k a year and often must more scold the rest
of the country for income inequality and oppression? Yeah, I am sure
you guys know all about oppression. No shut up and play ball.

With
the above in mind, I am curious why Trump's comments are considered
divisive. Perhaps it is beneath his office to comment on a
professional sports protest. But he made his comments at a
politically rally for a Senate candidate, not in some official Rose
Garden press conference. He is defending the national anthem, the
flag, and that for which they stand. He probably believes that is
part of his job as president. He is probably right. But it is
difficult to claim he is acting divisively when Barack Obama sent a
delegation to the funeral of Michael Brown, who was killed attacking
a police officer.

In
order to reconcile the notions Trump's actions are divisive, but
Obama’s were not one must believe the United States is inherently
racist. The inherent racism is the sole source of income
inequality,. The racism also compels police officers to brutalize
blacks anytime they please and get away with it. In spite of these
being blanket statements, they cannot be questioned . Anyone who
applies any sort of nuance is automatically racist and part of the
problem. But some how this point of view is not divisive? It does
not make any sense at all.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

It
is September 23rd, the most recently predicted date to be
the end of the world. The odds of the end occurring today are
virtually nil. Jesus himself said no man knows the day or time. But
how did we reach this point yet again? It appears to be a
combination of fraudulent teaching of Scripture and fake news
regarding NASA. Now there is one wacky combination.

So
what is the deal? Christian numerologist and conspiracy theorist
David Meade believes Luke 21: 25-26 establishes the time of the solar
eclipse and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in its descriptions of signs
from the sun and moon as well as the roaring of the sea. These signs
are allegedly a forerunner of the planet Nibiri nearly crashing into
Earth sometime today. Meade wrote a book—they always have a book
to sell-called The 2017 Arrival
in which he laid out his prediction.

By
pure happenstance, NASA discovered a new planet in the solar system
they named Planet Nine. NASA denies the new planet is the alleged
Nibiri. Nibiri is a hoax originated in 1976 by author Zecharia
Sitchin in his book The 12th
Planet. As I said, they always
have a book to sell. I do
not know why they need the money. According to them, the world is
ending.

An
important thing to note is today is not the first day Nibiri was
supposed to collide or nearly collide with Earth. All the other days
have come and gone, leaving the Earth unscathed. So shall it be
today.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Talk
about a blast from the past. A Facebook friend and former classmate
at Regent University shared our class photo from Regent's Facebook
page. I am not sure he wants to be identified, but if you want to
see yours truly, I am on the fifth row from the top and the fifth
from the left on the row. We were the Class of 2004, these photos
were taken in spring 2002. I am 25 in my photo. Many changes have
occurred in the ensuing fifteen years.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Len
Wein, one of my favorite comic book writers, has passed away after a
long illness. Wein was active in both DC and marvel Comics from the
late '60's onward. He most notably created Swamp Thing for DC and
the ever popular Wolverine for Marvel, as well as revitalized the
X-Men in general in the mid-'70's for the company. I particularly
enjoyed his long runs on Amazing Spider-Man
and the Incredible Hulk
from the late '70's. When I first began collecting old comics,
Wein's runs on those titles were some of the first I sought out.

While Wein is most known for creating Swamp Thing and many of the second
generation of X-Men, he was a journeyman in the world of comics who
wrote short runs of just about every character you could name. My
personal favorite was the penultimate Marvel Feature #11
from 1973. I stumbled across it at a convention in Charlotte in
1990. The story featured an obscure alien character placing a wager
with Hulk's arch-nemesis ,the Leader, that the Fantastic Four's
strongmen, the Thing, in a fight. For a long time there, fan debate
raged over which of the two was strongest, and any match up between
Hulk and the Thing was highly sought after. The issue lead to the
Thing earning his own title in which he teamed up with another
character every issue.

Later
in his career, Wein branched out to script writing. He penned a
number of stories for animated series featuring comics characters.
Most notably were Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man,
and X-Men.

Wein
was in poor health most of his life and on dialysis for the last few years. He came to love comics in much
the same manner as I did—he was given stacks of comics to read in
order to pass the time while recuperating from various illnesses as a
child. His health was in decline so long, I do not remember a time
when rumors of his imminent passing were not floating about in comics
fandom. Yet he always managed to bounce back with new endeavors. He
often appeared at conventions to meet fans. I imagine in person
meetings were the catalyst for persistent rumors of his inevitable
death. But he always beat the odds...until this morning.

Caligula
was one of the most colorful and insane rulers of Rome. A case in
point is the time he ordered a legion of soldiers to stab at the sea.
Afterward, he declared victory and ordered his men to gather sea
shells as war trophies. There are two stories possibly explaining
Caligula's actions. The first, from sensationalist historian
Suetonius, stated Caligula declared war on Neptune, the god of the
oceans, in order to establish dominion over his maritime realm. The
second is a legion of Romans nearly mutinied over orders to invade
Britain, and the act was done as a way of declaring some kind of
victory. The bottom line is Caligula was crazy because—and not
only because—the act accomplished nothing.

Flash
forward a few centuries, and the idea has spread among some Florida
residents that shooting at Hurricane Irma makes landfall in the Keys
and moves up the Gulf Coast will push the storm back into the ocean.
The suggestion came from an online post as a joking suggestion to
relieve stress and boredom, but some in Florida took it seriously
enough a local sheriff tweeted out a warning for citizens not to fire
a gun during the fierce winds will send the bullets astray. The
Facebook event at which Irma was supposed to be attacked had 26,000
people signed up to attend.

A
couple other events were planned via Facebook, such as meeting
together to push Irma back out to sea and a peaceful protest against
Irma to demonstrate its ideology of violence and destruction is not
welcome in Gainsville. I confess to liking the jab at social justice
warriors with that one. Aside from these two examples, there are
other acts of absurdity planned for real. There is a fellow who
planned to tie himself to a pole to wait out the storm. No word as
to whether he went through with it. If he did, I assume he is now a
Darwin Award finalist.

In
all seriousness, I hope everyone is Florida stays as safe as possible
during Irma. Hurricanes are no laughing matter. Even in a place
like Florida which suffers hurricanes frequently, never underestimate
when a particularly powerful one comes along. When nature decides to
show you who is really in charge, take heed.

Monday, September 4, 2017

I
hope everyone is enjoying Labor Day. As mentioned here in recent
days, it is the final holiday of the summer. I made the most of it
with hamburgers and BBQ chicken. Not much to complain about there,
no? If you are curious how I managed to gain several pounds over the
last couple weeks, today's lunch is a good clue.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Yes,
it is another Beach boys song. A pattern is developing before your
very eyes.

This
is my favorites out of all the country covers I posted this week.
Junior Brown puts a definite country twist on the song. The beach
boys not only sing backup, but appear as though they are having the
time of their lives doing so. The lively spirit is infectious.

Compare this performance to yesterday's "Just give me the paycheck" reaction KISS had to playing with Garth Brooks as he goofs around on "Hard Luck Woman.'

Saturday, September 2, 2017

One may insist the spirit of this post runs contrary to the general advice to “let dead leaves fall,” but I did vow months ago to make a periodic reminder of the status of my personal belongings. While it is important to let go of the little things, it is also important to keep your word. I weighed the two concepts and decided keeping a vow is more important under the circumstances. What good is a person who fails to keep his promises?

You may recall when I intervened in the Darlington County sheriff's race I had been abandoned to a nursing home by Team Chavis while they kept all of my personal belongings, surrogate for the campaign said all of my belongings were actually boxed up. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows this claim is false. No reason exist to keep any of my stuff if Team Chavis has no intention of ever contacting me again. But I called their bluff and will continue to do so. I have friends in Hartsville who are willing to retrieve my stuff. All they need is the go ahead fro Team Chavis. It is a go ahead that will, of course, never come.

This is the character of your new sheriff, Darlington. He does not care about doing the right thing. He only cares about the sense of self-worth he derives from wearing a uniform. I will continue to serve as a source of truth for this matter.

So
here is a particular oddity for you. Not only do I consider Garth
Brooks' reign in country music as the beginning of it drift away from
tradition, I do not consider his rendition of KISS' “Hard luck
Woman” to be all that good. But there is a particular novelty to
watching KISS play backup for Brooks. Gene Simmons admitted they
only played on the cover because brooks groveled . I get the
impression they would rather be anyone else but on that stage.

Before
anyone blasts me, I do like a lot of Brook's music from the early
'90's. He went off the rails after refusing the Artist of the Year
from the American Music Awards. The less said about his turn as
Chris Gaines, the better. The bottom line is I am giving both credit
and blame where I fairly think it belongs. Your mileage may vary.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Common
Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was
released in 1993 as a benefit for Walden Pond in Concord,
Massachusetts. Walden Pond is famous for being the place in which
Henry David Thoreau wrote his famous work, Waldon; or Life
in the Woods. Preserving Waldon
Pond has been a longtime project for Eagles' drummer and
environmentalist Don Henley.

The
album featured country artists covering songs of the Eagles. The
eagles are right up there with Jimmy Buffett in terms of my favorite
artists and at the time of the release, refugee fan of their kind of
music were migrating to country in order to escape the mess rap, pop,
and dance had made of mainstream music. Common Thread
was one of the first Cd I ever bought. It enjoyed heavy rotation
right up until I switched to MP3 a few years ago.

Many
fans have criticized some of the country artists for butchering the
originals. Fair enough. Such criticism comes with the territory of
cover songs. There are a few on the CD I am not too fond of, either.
None compare to the originals, either. But there are some good
efforts. I could have easily chosen three or four, but I went with
Travis Tritt's cover of “Take It Easy.” It appears to be among
the most favored covers. As with the song I chose yesterday, the
original band plays backup.

Not
everyone was happy with Common Thread,
but the Cd compelled the Eagles to tour again in 1994 after a
fourteen year hiatus. The Eagles' new found success lead to about a
dozen farewell tours since then, so there is that.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

The
last day of August is not officially the end of summer, but for all
intents and purposes, it is. Vacation time is over. I even feel
that way well into adulthood when summer does not mean as much
vacation-wise as it did when I was a student a long time ago. I am
the Jimmy buffett beach bum type. Summer vacation or no, the end of
summer calls for at least a touch of melancholy even for the forward
looking who enjoy the possibilities of what comes next.

There
is a certain cruelty in summer weather continuing on for a number of
weeks into what is almost always a mild fall in South Carolina. We
really only have two seasons down here—summer and football. When
Christmas is too warm for a sweater, you know you are in the South.

The
cruelest reminder summer has technically ended in my youth was the
relapse after a week or two of school of the Labor Day holiday. At
one time, it was the last trip to the beach my family would make
until the following Easter. Yet myrtle Beach would already be
winding down by that time. On our final Labor day weekend trip in
1989, I was forced to take homework with me for the first time.
Junior high was much less forgiving of youthful pleasures than
elementary.

Hurricane
Hugo came along a few weeks after and destroyed our beach property.
We rebuilt it over the next summer, but the beach experience was
never the same. The summer of 1991 was the last ever regularly spent
there. My parents divorced, and I have only been back to myrtle
beach sporadically over the years for quick trips while staying hotel
rooms. My idea of summer has definitely changed over the years.

I
hope everyone else had a lovely summer break in whatever capacity it
was a vacation. It is time to get ready for fall. Just spare me the
love fest you may have with pumpkin spice latte. I am not a fan.

Summer
does not officially end with the last day of August, but it always
feels that way. It feels that way enough to justify posting Willie
nelson's mournful cover of the Beach Boy's “The Warmth of the Sun”
to mark the end of summer. Vacation days may be over, but we still
have the warmth of the sun for a while longer to remind us.

This
is another country cover of a Beach Boys song, and it is a bit
cheating to cal it a cover since the Beach Boys are singing back up.
But this will not only not be the last time I post a country artist
covering a Beach Boys song, it will not be the last time the Beach
boys join in the performance. There must be something about their
music that lends itself well to country.

It
is most likely a testament to Brian Wilson's talent as a songwriter
to transcend musical barriers with his work. He is an underrated
genius.